Tag: Words and Language
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Quirks of the English Language
Now I am writing for a living, there are many curiosities that strike me about the language of English, seemingly contradictory grammatical rules, strange spellings, silent letters, that dreaded “i before e except after c” that has so many exceptions. This thread is just a dumping ground for some of the weirder quirks so please forgive me […]
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Origins of the English Language: Invaders from the North
This is the second part in my series and it’s only taken me a year to write it! It look at the impact of the Vikings on England specifically though they did invade and settle in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and northern France. The Vikings have a poor press. Conventionally portrayed as horn-helmeted barbarians who raped […]
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Websites for writers: Powerthesaurus
What happens when you know what you want to say but the right word doesn’t come to mind? You need a thesaurus. There are many out there, a lot of glittery and some don’t stand up to quality checks. Basically – they have style but little substance. A couple of weeks ago I was sent […]
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Origins of the English Language: Zee Germans
Imagine living in fifth century Britannia. You speak a bastardised form of Latin that might have been influenced by the Celtic languages that preceded the arrival of the Mediterranean language. But a new language is about to arrive…
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Origins of the English Language: An Introduction
I’ve had an idea for some time to write a couple of articles on the origin of English, specifically how it evolved out of Anglo-Saxon languages and how much influence north European pronunciation and words contributed to the language today – Viking to the rest of us.
MG Mason Creative 